Singh urges customs to form ASEAN Lane

JAKARTA (JP): Secretary-General of ASEAN Adjit Singh has urged the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to synchronize their customs procedures to create a smoother and faster movement of goods.

Singh said yesterday in his opening remarks at a two-day meeting of ASEAN's director generals of customs in Malang, East Java, that the establishment of such procedures at various customs entry points in the region would allow goods to be handled on a priority basis and cleared quickly.

Singh called the procedure the ASEAN Lane for Common Effective Preferential Tariffs (CEPT) products.

"It will be a big boon for our ASEAN exporters and importers," he said.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

The Malang meeting was the second held by the director generals, following the first held in Bali last January which looked into the harmonization of tariff nomenclature, customs valuation and customs procedures to support the CEPT scheme for the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA).

The proposals, if recommended by the Malang meeting, will be put forward at the ASEAN summit meeting slated to take place in Bangkok in December, Singh said, adding that the adoption of the proposals will clearly demonstrate the seriousness of ASEAN in implementing the agreement on AFTA.

Intra-ASEAN trade for products covered by the CEPT increased by 43 percent from US$84.2 billion in 1993 to $91.5 billion in 1994.

The rising volume of trade, coupled with the rapid growth of ASEAN industries and the increasingly diversified structure of exports, will require greater response from customs administrations to facilitate the flow of goods, Singh said.

The Malang meeting is also being attended by observers from Vietnam, which will become an ASEAN member on July 28. (kod)